Coaching Your Brain

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Monday, August 14, 2017

The TED Prize amplifies big ideas from visionary leaders, to spark global change. Each TED Prize winner receives $1 million — and the TED community’s wide range of expertise and resources — to make a bold wish become a reality, that inspires thinkers and doers across the world to get involved.

Last Mile Health is the 2017 TED Prize and winner Raj Panjabi's wish is to extend health services to all by training members of the community. Back in 2007, with a small team of Liberian civil war survivors, American health workers and $6,000 Taj had received as a wedding gift, he co-founded Last Mile Health. Initially focused on care for HIV patients, the initiative has grown into a robust organization that recruits, trains, equips and employs community health workers who provide a wide range of services to their neighbors in most remote regions.

In 2016, Last Mile Health workers treated 50,000 patients, including nearly 22,000 cases of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea in children.

Raj Panjabi was ranked as one of "The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders" by Fortune in 2015 and named to TIME's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2016. As the winner of the 2017 TED Prize, Raj is creating the Community Health Academy, a global platform to train, connect and empower community health workers.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Professors of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Luleå University of Technology and Hanken School of Economics in Sweden recorded venture capitalists (VC's) conversations and analyzed how differently they talk about female entrepreneurs when evaluating investment proposals.

The language they use to describe the entrepreneurs plays an important but often hidden role in shaping who is awarded funding and why. From the experiment, one major thing stuck out: the language used to describe male and female entrepreneurs was radically different. And these differences have very real consequences for those seeking funding — and for society in general.

More broadly, this research (find more on HBR May 2017 issue)suggests that stereotyping through language underpins the image of a man as a true entrepreneur while undermining the image of a woman as the same. Such stereotyping will inevitably influence the distribution of financing, but could also have other major consequences. Because the purpose of government VC's is to use tax money to stimulate growth and value creation for society as a whole, gender bias presents the risk that the money isn’t being invested in businesses that have the highest potential. This isn’t only damaging for women entrepreneurs; it’s potentially damaging for society as a whole.

Manfred de Vries, INSEAD Distinguished Professor interestingly writes about this and how the closest relative of Homo Sapiens is not the gorilla (known for its alpha male behaviour) but the bonobo, alias the pygmy chimpanzee, which is part of a matriarchal society.

Humans share 98.7 percent of DNA with the bonobos which create, maintain, and use social networks to manage stressful conditions, in contrast to the alpha “fight-or-flight” behavior. There is a place for alpha-behavior in organisations which need the drive, competitiveness and commitment of leadership - however this must be balanced with models of leadership that connect, build and nurture. Once this balance is achieved, organisations like Amazon (named as one of the most stressful companies to work for) will discover that employees who work without fear can be driven to new heights.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Technology addiction expert, Dr. David Greenfield refers to smartphones as “the world’s smallest slot machine", explaining that just as alike these small machines operate on a variable reinforcement schedule highly addictive and neurobiological explaineded.

Addiction is a condition that results from ingestion of a substance (ex: alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, cafeine, ...) or from engaging in an activity (ex:, gambling, sex, shopping,..) that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary responsibilities and concerns, such as work, relationships, or health. People who developed an addiction may not be aware that their behavior is out of control and causing problems for themselves and others.

With the internet, twitter, facebook and many more, it is easy to get almost instant gratification for the desire to seek.

Want to talk to someone right away? Send a text and they respond in a few seconds. Want to look up some information? Just type your request into google… It’s SO easy to get in a dopamine induced loop.

Dopamine starts you seeking, then you get rewarded for the seeking which makes you seek more, becoming harder and harder to stop looking at email, stop texting, or stop checking your cell phone to see if you have a message or a new text.

So, what to do? Here is a good reading and tips on how to outsmart your smartphone by using technology to limit your technology use. You might also consider the very basics such as getting your phone out of the bedroom and putting yourself on a digital diet.

Not enough? Then take a more extreme course of action and consider Daniel Sieberg's strategy; get drastic with a digital detox - check it out and decide on a few steps you can NOW and get started.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

I will repeat: running it's tough and it hurts. And yet I keep doing it and this is the day I've completed my 2nd half-marathon. Now, not only is running tough on the body, it is also tough on the mind - and by tough the mind, in the case of today's run - Meia Maratona de Cascais - means .. yeah, positively tough!!

It seems that our will to run is innate and humans evolved as we did because of our ability to run (as Christopher McDougall's defends in his bestselling book "Born to Run" a theory devised by Harvard scientists). Beyond the physical aspects, plenty has also been said and written about running being a sort of road to self-awareness and reliance, allowing a person to push itself to extremes and learn about its own physical and mental limitations. This is also a part of our evolution as we learn more on what are, how to accept and put in perspective limitations. When you are cognizant of your limitations you can use them to move forward in life - this means the more conscious we become of what limits us, the more limitless becomes our life.

Now, me and my good friends Rita, Sara and Paula have taken a compromise and made a pledge together on something that, even being a limitation for all (except for Sara that meanwhile has run a Marathon!!) would allow us to share a breakthrough experience; to run an half-marathon together. And yes, TODAY three of us crossed the end line together, a new road that reinforces our bonding. This has got me thinking about the commitments we make, and how we keep or break them. When we promise something only to ourselves, it's easy to back out.But when we make a commitment to other persons (and specially when those persons mean a lot to us) that is something that raises the stakes! We become invested in accomplishing the promise made together, supporting each other in whatever struggles each one experiences to keep the promise, creating bonds, caring and and encouraging who ever is involved in reaching the common goal.

So, now running is more; is about surpassing challenges that are creating a sense of connectedness, a sense of being in it together. Is about feeding a "place in my mind" of deeper level of self-awareness that supplies ways to work with limitations and even so, allowing freedom of mind that serves as key to self-motivation. Thank you Rita and Sara! Paula; we'll see you on March!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

As humans, we typically strive for happiness, most of the times a condition that we perceive to be the opposite of suffering - meaning, if suffering is, by definition, the state of undergoing pain, distress or hardship then you do not want to be in that state but instead want be to in the state of being happy.

One may tend to discussed then if these can be experienced as two as separate states of being - meaning, are we really only able to feel happy when we do not suffer? and conversely, when one is suffering is it then not possible to feel or be happy?

Seems also that our general happiness is more genetically determined than anything else but the good news is that with consistent effort this can be offset. So, while it could take years of persistence to deeply transform life (if even possible), there are some scientifically-tested strategies that have been shown to provide an immediate happiness boost. And even if such activities provide a modest increase in happiness, when practiced consistently they become happiness habits, energizing people to live their dreams and passions.

In summary, do try to remember that under normal conditions, daily life is filled with simple things (and miracles); from the wonderful people that surrounds us to computer games or a peaceful walk in the park. Somehow we tend to take all for granted after a while, putting in front of us the challenge of thinking about a better way to appreciate and savor the good things of life. If that is the case, try this framework at Happify were you can practice, right now, and get a shot of healthy psychological nutrients.